Nick's POV
      I sighed heavily, looking away from Blues broken body. I reached my hand into my vest, feeling around for my axe, but alas, I felt nothing. I sighed in defeat, limping around the area for a few moments, looking for something sharp or heavy to finish the job with. That's when I finally noticed it; the heavy feeling on my back, blossoming pain like a flower opening in the spring. I slowly looked back, gasping at the sight of two large, and horribly injured, bat wings protruding from my aching back. I stared silently at them, a million questions flowing through my mind. Why were they there? Were they broken? Could I get rid of them? The last one seemed tempting, so I took a deep breath, attempting to fold the wings back into my form. Though it proved to be a not-so-good idea.

       A scream of pain left my throat as my bones cracked and shifted in all the wrong directions as my wings attempted to seize back into my body. I fell to my knees, trembling. My breathing was shaky and my body throbbed with an unearthly agony. The pain subsided the smallest amount, and then I heard it. The soft whimpering howls from Blue. I took in a shaky breath, help Blue..Then yourself...I thought hazily. I pulled myself back up to my feet in a shaky, faint way. I limped forward, my right arm hanging in a limp, painful way. I finally found a large rock, an adequate size for what I needed to do. Though upon trying to pick it up, I quickly learned that my strength was still gone. The rock wouldn't move an inch, no matter how hard I tried. I huffed heavily, glancing back at my wings again.

      That's when I noticed the sharp tip that gleamed in the dim light. I realized how perfect it was, and I felt sick to my stomach. Killing Blue was hard enough, but by my own hand? No...I REALLY didn't want to do it, but Blue's pained cries was enough to make me man up and limp over to him. I stood beside him, and the two of us met eyes. "I'm...Sorry...About all of this...I wish it could be different, I swear..." I whispered hoarsely. Blue released his breath, shutting his eyes with a whimper. I lifted a wing painfully, nearly collapsing in the process. Then I slammed it down, slicing through the poor Planchazo's neck. My bones cracked, and I shivered at the warm, wet feeling the action caused on my wing. I fell to my knees, both in pain and horror, I looked at the damage I'd done, feeling tears burning my eyes. Blood dripped down my wing, matching the blood that ran out of Blue's throat.

      I must admit, what I did next...I'm not proud of it. But the blood was everywhere, and I was so hungry and weak...And to say that I didn't enjoy the process would be a sin. But before I knew it, I was dozing off again, my stomach full of thick blood. I fell asleep for a third time, not knowing for how long. Though as soon as I woke up, I had one mission: to get out of this stupid ravine. So I first studied the area around me, and it appeared  to me that I had two options. I could
A) Go up
Or
B) Go left or Right

      Neither I was very fond of. If I walked I may never find the end before I die, but if I climbed I could fall and die. So either way I was probably gonna die. So, I decided to climb. That way if I fell it would be a quick, relatively painless death... Hopefully. My first attempt was a thoughtless idea that maybe, just MAYBE, if I flapped my wings hard enough, I could fly out of that hellhole. But of course, that only ended in me on my knees, practically melting in pain. So, I had to climb, unfortunately. It was painful, and painfully slow. I grabbed each ledge with scraped hands, my wings dragging heavily behind me in a painful fashion. Occasionally I would find a ledge big enough for me to take a small, possibly hour long, break on.

        Yet no matter how hard I tried, or how long I climbed, the top still seemed unreachable. I'll never know how long it took me to climb that stupid ravine, it all felt like a feverish, weak haze. When I finally did reach the top, it felt like a dream. A dream so vivid that I wanted so hard to believe it, but it felt so fake. I collapsed onto the ground, relishing in the feeling of rest. But it was short lived, of course. Because I had to go find my friends. I had to find Cory, Uni, Ashlie, Jon, Dawn, and Tommy... They probably thought I was dead, and that scared me. So, I immediately started walking in a random direction, hoping with all my heart that they would be there at some point. They had to be...

    "And so I walked. I walked and walked and walked until I finally found you." I explained. I then held up the worn axe in my hand, "I found this along to way, too, since my old one got lost. Pretty convenient, huh?" I said in a more peppy voice. The others just stared, though. Some in horror, some with pitying looks bathed in sour melancholy, and then there was Tommy. He sat with the bright mask hiding all of his expression except for the tight frown. Then he removed the mask slowly, revealing teary eyes and a guilty look. "Nick...I'm so, so so so, sorry..." He sniffed, "We left you there...How could we leave you there?" He whimpered.

      I reached over, patting his shoulder softly, "Hey now, you'd better stop blaming yourself for this. Honestly, I would have left me, too. It was a miracle that I survived. If anything, it was better that you moved on and continued without me. You were SO strong, Tommy. All of you were!" My eyes teared up, and I laughed quietly. "And now we're together again, now it's okay again, and we can all be okay again. Shred squad forever, right?" I asked. "Right." Came a chorus of emotion-filled replies. That night ended with a group hug that hurt, yes, but also felt better than anything that I'd ever felt before. And I'd never felt luckier to have so many people care about me. I had never had that before. We were all so invested in our reunion, that we failed to notice the scowling shadow of a girl in the forest, her eyes dark and sinister and she watched us.

Thanks for the amazing fanart by SketchBooked

A/N AND I RETURN, ALONG WITH THIS BOOK!!! Sorry for the wait 😅, I hope it was worth it though! You'll never have to wait that long again (hopefully), but I'll certainly try a little harder! Anyways, I hope you have a good day/night, love you guys! And I'll see you around!! :D